Wilshire loses COO

Fund of funds pros Daniel Allen and Jacques Youssefmir, and Laurie Coggan, Wilshire’s COO, have left the advisory firm for unexplained reasons.

Wilshire Associates, the parent company of Wilshire Private Markets, a US-based fund of funds, has lost executives Daniel Allen and Jacques Youssefmir. Laurie Coggan, chief operating officer of the firm, has also left.

Allen, a senior managing director at the firm, served on the management committee for the US fund of funds business, and managed the Wilshire Private Markets European team, responsible for origination, due diligence and monitoring of buyout and venture capital investments in Europe.

Allen joined Wilshire in 1983, according to a past profile.

Jacques Youssefmir served as a managing director responsible for the fund of funds global co-investment process.

An executive at Wilshire declined to give a reason behind the departures. The firm closed its eighth fund of funds on $615 million in May, above its original $600 million target. Wilshire hired BlackRock private equity veteran Kevin Nee as president of its US fund of funds business in July.

“We have a team of more than 40 professionals in our five offices throughout the world, including 10 people at managing director level or higher,” Nee said in an interview with PEO today. “We consider that a robust team of professionals. We built the team so the departure of any individual won’t present any issues with the execution of our investment strategy.”

Nee declined to comment about whether the departures will trigger any key-man issues in the firm’s most recent fund.

The firm has been “steadily making commitments” from the fund. Wilshire Private Markets commits money to small to mid-market buyout and venture managers, as well as distressed managers. “That focus has remained consistent over time, and that’s our focus going forward,” Nee said.